104 Finland

Todd: OK, Keith, I was surprised to hear that you actually lived in Finland.

Keith: Yeah, I lived in a small farm town there. There's a little place called Kalhaba. About 8,000 people live there. Yeah, it was a nice time. I was teaching kindergarten to little Finnish children and sometimes I was teaching adults too. Once a week.

Todd: OK. What was the best thing about Finland?

Keith: Wow. I'd say the summers were the best thing because summer's there, well, there's no night really, depending on where you are in the country. 24 hours of daylight if you were in lapland. It was outstanding.

Learn Vocabulary from the lesson

farm town

I lived in a small farm town.

A 'farm town' is a small town in the country where most of the people live and work on farms. Notice the following:

She grew up in a farm town, but she changed a lot when she moved to the city.

They live in a farm town a few hours from the city.

kindergarten

I was teaching kindergarten.

'Kindergarten' is school for young children, 5 to 6 years old. In some schools kindergarten is only half of the day, morning or afternoon. Notice the following:

When she was in kindergarten her class had a pet bird.

They learned to write letters in kindergarten.

depend

Depending on where you are in the country.

In the example, 'depending on' shows us that there is a connection between where you are and what your experience will be. This means that if you are in one part of the country you will have one experience, but your experience will be different if you are in another part of the country. If one thing is true than something else will be true. Notice the following:

If it rains we will have the party inside. It all depends on the weather.

Depending on how you feel tomorrow, maybe we can go to the fair.

daylight

24 hours of daylight in Lapland.

The hours that the sun is shining each day are the hours of 'daylight.' Notice the following:

In the summer there are more hours of daylight.

There was not enough daylight to read my book.

outstanding

Summers in Finland were outstanding.

If something is 'outstanding' it is incredible, amazing, or in this example, really beautiful. Notice the following: